After Trump tweet, journalists suddenly concerned about difference between weather and climate change

Aside from CNN’s perpetual updates on that truck blocking their view of the golf course, it might have been a slow night for news … that is, until President Trump decided to tweet, and the firefighters in the media rushed to their posts.

In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!

Aren’t they? The journalists at CNN seem to have been hardest hit by this latest Trump tweet, but they weren’t alone. Suddenly, after decades of reporting every extreme weather event as the result of global climate change, reporters deemed it necessary to remind the American public that there’s climate change, and then there’s weather.

CNN’s Chris Cillizza was ON IT.

Climate change is about the long-term changing of our climate — and increasing unpredictability in it. Not about a cold spell. https://t.co/mbqtOpp0xS

Incontrovertible evidence, you say? As opposed to all of the media outlets that pretend a single study (not a survey) claiming a 97 percent scientific consensus on man-made climate change is incontrovertible evidence that climate change is real? The science is settled, remember?

The best part is that CNN’s Cillizza offered a USA TODAY story to explain the difference between weather and climate — must have been too much digging on CNN’s website to find something comparable.

U.S. to be coldest region in world relative to normal over next week. Please note rest of world will be much warmer than normal lest anyone try to claim pocket of cold in U.S. debunks global warming, which they will invariably and irresponsibly do. https://t.co/hzocqUrfKphttps://t.co/4uA4fJUAyV

A reminder that President Trump’s tweets are to be treated as official White House statements… so the official White House position is that global warming could be a good thing. https://t.co/HPkt8kQmXY

Climate change is about long-term trends: "2017 has seen far more record highs than record lows… Over the last 365 days, there have been roughly 3 record high temperatures in the U.S. for every record low temperature, according to federal gov't data." https://t.co/3hjD0CX2kghttps://t.co/pI8SEZzmdC

This statement shows we are idiocracy. "It's really cold outside today" is not about climate. And while people who laugh at science wont get it, yes, global warming can lead to mass freezing. Today, however, is just weather. But the least informed will keep laughing the loudest. https://t.co/KOlNUaNhU4

Either @realDonaldTrump doesn't understand the science behind climate change, or he is intentionally misleading the American people. Also, Merry Christmas (even though today is Dec 28) because the President says we can say that again (even though we have always been saying it). https://t.co/8KwaxdbvzB